The Bible for literary purposes

I was pleasantly surprised by the Jan. 24 editorial “Literature.” It was a good breather from all the news and commentaries on the ongoing Corona impeachment trial. The editorial, among other things, emphasized the Bible’s literary value, being as it is a rich source of beautiful figurative language and imagery. It reminded me of an English class assignment I gave my freshmen high school students at JASMS-QC four years ago.

After a lesson on figures of speech, I assigned my students to give examples taken from whatever reading materials. As I wanted them to do actual research and not just copy-paste examples from the Internet, I specifically instructed them to photocopy the actual pages where their examples were found. The turnout was most satisfying. The examples they submitted came from various printed sources—song books (pop songs), children’s books, novels, travel brochures, advertorials, press releases, magazines, famous speeches, news articles and columns, the Bible, etc.

One student’s example of a simile he found in the Bible was the line “My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag…” from the very passionate (and “probably” erotic?) Song of Songs (2:8-14), which is my all-time favorite Mass reading. Another one was the personification “Love is patient, love is kind…” from 1 Corinthians (13:4), which, I remember, struck me for the first time as a college student at UST several years ago while watching an interpretative reading competition.

Having read many biblical passages in the past 10 years that I have been a lector in our parish, I can say that a lot of Mass scriptures can be used as pieces for interpretative reading exercises and competitions. “The Parting of the Red Sea” (Exodus 14:15-15:1) is another good one. If read with the right amount of passion, it can give the listeners goose bumps, which I experienced when my co-lector read it most ardently a few years ago during an Easter Vigil Mass.

Of course, we know that the Bible should be read primarily to know God’s words and will. But as an English teacher, I have discovered that indeed, the Bible is one very useful tool in the teaching, learning and even personal appreciation of great literature.

—CLAUDE LUCAS C. DESPABILADERAS,

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